What's in the Hoop, Sandy?

Needless to say, Sandy did not drag her hoop to the cottage, but I had to ask what she was quilting. I'm so glad that I did. Isn't it lovely?

These subway tile blocks are such a great way to use up scraps but I can see where they would work beautifully with a curated colour palette as well.

And just look what she's using for the backing and binding. Sigh. Just LOVE it and how the softness of the floral design contrasts with the structured pattern. It will be gorgeous.

There hasn't been a whole lot of quilting done on this one lately because we've had a pretty toasty summer this year, but now that we are headed into autumn she is looking forward to picking up her needle again.

In the meantime, she's been hand stitching these autumnal nine-patch blocks. There's no plan yet, she just wanted to stitch them and so far she's got 75; they will be trimmed to 6.5". Lots and lots of possibilities here but for the time being she is enjoying the great unknown of it all.

One thing she does know for sure is that she leans to the anal side (my kind of gal 😊). She was was excited to discover these little corner patches as she was pressing the blocks. "What's wrong with me?" she asked. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Those are the little bits that make us all a little giddy, aren't they?....M

Sandy is in Hexie Heaven

I managed to get in a few pics of Sandy's latest projects too before the sun went down on us last weekend at Jane's cottage but most of them were too dark to use so she has kindly filled in the blanks for me. She's made great progress on her EPP project thanks to spending a couple of months stitching by the seaside in Cozumel this winter.

It's so lovely and soft. The hexies are about 2" in size and they look as good on the back...

as they do on the front.

And while we're talking about the back, check out the perfection of her hand stitching! Meticulous.

This isn't going to be a large quilt so much of the paper piecing is complete. Once the edges are filled in she wants to do three rows of cream hexies all the way around; then it will be time for borders and quilting. The string of cream hexies will go across the quilt rather than vertically, which will be nice too.

It also doesn't have a name yet. This is not a colour palette that she normally gravitates to but, as she says, "I’m still finding my comfort zone with these colours but they remind me of the fabrics my Great Grandma chose for dresses my Mom would make her." Totally get it....M

Jane's Masterpiece

We got out to Jane's cottage for a visit with her, Sandy, and Betty last weekend so I've got a little bit of a show and tell for you, but you can see that we waited until dusk to bring out the quilty goodies. What were we doing?

Well, playing Mexican Trains in the shade of the trees between swims and trying to stay cool. Sandy has the patience of a saint because I have to say I'm not the quickest study at this game, but she hung in there with us.

Back to Jane. Isn't this going to be a masterpiece? This is the border (apologies for the lighting - I'll get better images for you down the road)...

...that will go with these blocks. LUV, LUV, LUV! And we've finally found the name of the block - it's Blockade. A little uninspiring, wouldn't you say? Jane is busy coming up with a new name.

One more shot of those gorgeous fabrics.

And don't you love the way they are all so organized? She used an old skirt hanger to keep everything in one place and its working beautifully. Thank you Pinterest!...M

Digging to the Bottom of the Bag

I have a very 'non-quilty' little black bag for my hand stitching projects. It's years old and was once part of a cosmetics promotion. It's also black patent, hardly something that invokes the idea of quilting, but it has proven to be the perfect size.

At 6 x 8" it is large enough to hold a surprising number of bits and bobs - my spool holder and pincushion, scissors and any number of blocks/hexies. Lately it has been busy with hexies for Minnie but for months now about a dozen little nine-patch blocks and scraps of green have been tucked away in the very bottom.

It even has an emergency needle and a couple of straight pins in case I forget my larger pincushion...

And a lavender sachet to keep things smelling fresh.

The greens are leftovers from my Danuta's Garden sashing; they are about 1.25". I started making nine-patches but then ran out of white, so there they sat. I am hoping that there is some of this pretty sweet pea print left from the same quilt so that I can make a table topper.

Anyway, these blocks surfaced the other day when I was looking for something other than hexies to hand stitch, so I finally cut a strip of cream and made another half dozen. Funny what you find when you go looking, isn't it? I'm out of white again so time to cut another strip.

I do have a plan to make a lined bag the same size as this one some day with a decidedly more quilty feel but for now my little black bag will do just fine....M